British Science Festival: can imagining a bold future create a sustainable world?

31st October 2024

Last month, I had the honour of hosting a sold-out workshop representing Earthwatch Europe at the annual British Science Festival in London!

As the longest-running science festival in the UK, the British Science Festival brings together scientists, innovators, and curious minds to discuss cutting-edge research and engage the public in meaningful ways.

Our workshop stood out alongside many other fascinating sessions including medical researchers investigating lab-grown organs, social scientists exploring how babies perceive the world, and technologists utilising virtual reality in their research.

The festival aims to connect with diverse audiences and ignite curiosity about science – a mission that resonates with Earthwatch’s work. Just like the festival, Earthwatch seeks to enhance public understanding of environmental issues and empower communities.

The workshop was inspired by our Nature in Cities work, exploring the importance of urban greenspaces.

But rather than overwhelming participants with data and facts, we took a more creative approach. We explored the idea of our future environment using hands-on, imaginative methods like drawing and clay modelling.

Participants embarked on a journey throughout the session, delving into current societal trends and challenges to ultimately imagining big bold futures for our environment.

The interactive format of the British Science Festival presented a unique opportunity for us to trial something new – a speculative design workshop through the powers of our imagination!

An example swiftly set the mood for the workshop as we introduced Tiny Forest inviting participants to imagine themselves as the tiny trees. This set the stage for an exercise in creativity, optimism, and thinking beyond the limits of today.

The task was simple but thought-provoking. ‘Imagine your local greenspace in your community in 50 years’ time.’ The year is 2074. What does it look like? What are the key differences between now and this future? And how did we get there?

The exercise sparked some truly innovative ideas, all of which drew from participants’ surroundings, personal experiences, knowledge, even inspiration from movies. We had locals as well as a group of SEN students join in.

Visions of the future

Here are some of the standout visions from the session:

• A public transport heavy society: In this future, private cars have no place on the roads. Car sharing is more than encouraged but enforced, and roads are dominated by sustainable transport options. Cars cannot move unless they are more than half full. Could this be the simple, effective solution we’re looking for?
• A portable solar cooking device: One participant ingeniously used the contents of his bag to bring the idea to life. Imagine an umbrella-shaped device that harvests sunlight for cooking or heating on the go! A fun and practical innovation, especially in a world where sustainable, off-grid solutions are increasingly necessary.

• Composting mealworms that can be your next meal: One of my favourite ideas. Mealworms not only for decomposing household waste but also being a sustainable source of protein. When they mature, they can then be consumed as food – creating a neat cycle of waste to food in the food. I loved the circularity of the idea!
• AI and Robots doing all our chores: We had a lot of chatter about artificial intelligences and robots, and how they might evolve in the future. One of the students imagined an AI robot that handles all our chores and work. When asked what they would do with all the free time they simply said ‘just relax’! The benefit of this bold future is all the extra free time, to spend doing things we love. The group concluded this could lead to a happier, healthier and friendlier world to live in, where people have more time to focus on what they love.

• A green utopia: In this future, everything is green. Green infrastructure goes far beyond today’s living walls and rooftop gardens. Participants highlighted the underutilisation of vertical space in current urban design, envisioning a future where communities fully integrate nature vertically as well. By designing and connecting green spaces from the ground to the rooftops, urban areas would become lush, multi-layered ecosystems—mirroring the “forest layers” of nature. This vision sees cities transformed into vibrant environments that prioritise nature at every level.

How can imagining bold futures play a part in today’s changing society?

The beauty of the workshop lay in the hope and optimism it generated. In a world often dominated by the doom and gloom of the environmental crises, it was refreshing to leap straight into the exhilarating possibilities of a brighter future.

By encouraging people to think big and dream wildly – without the pressure of wrongly predicting the future – we were able to shift focus from despair to hope. Hope, in turn inspires action.

Imagining bold futures opens possibilities and provides a roadmap for the world we want to create, whether that’s through personal behaviour change or a collective societal effort. This is what Earthwatch Europe’s work in citizen science and community-based nature projects aims to achieve.

Citizen science empowers individuals to act, often on a small scale that contributes to wider impact.

Earthwatch’s Tiny Forest project encourages people to monitor and protect their forest in their urban landscape, collecting valuable data that can inform decision-makers and inspire innovative urban designs for the future.

The workshop was a great success, thanks to the enthusiasm and creativity of everyone involved. It was a reminder of how powerful our imaginations can be when it comes to envisioning positive change.

As we move forward, I encourage you all to continue dreaming big and thinking boldly!

Cover image was created using Copilot AI, inspired by the workshop participants’ green utopia vision of the future